In, 2000 he was honoured with awards at the New York Film Festival and from the UK Royal Television Society, and received the world's leading prize for independent camera journalism, the Rory Peck Award.
His father had been Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic
of El Salvador.
After leaving Blue Peter he used the name Max Stahl for his subsequent work as a war correspondent. Max is his first name (Christopher is his middle name) and Stahl is his mother's maiden name.
In 2019, the national parliament of Timor-Leste granted him Timorese citizenship in recognition and honour of his reports in 1991 and 1999 on the struggle of East Timor to gain independence.